Discovering Naval
Pursuing your genuine intellectual curiosity and the future of work.
Heyy Fam,
This week was pretty good. Some ups and downs but a lot more of a win than last week. I built an app (still a draft), I set up my new office space and I did a lot of reflection with the help of my friends and family.
I did a bunch of writing and reflection yesterday that was not related to this newsletter. As I feel I have already done enough reflection on the week, I will share with you someone I discovered this week.
It is magic when you find someone who says things that you really resonate with. Who can articulate ideas better than you will ever be able to. Introducing Naval. I have seen some of his content before, even binged content from others who I now realise are his ‘disciples’.
This week I did a deep dive into his content and learning who he is. Most of it came from this Joe Rogan podcast, which is timeless. Naval feels like a modern-day philosopher and he is a new role model for me.
Here are some summaries of things he talks about that I resonate with:
1. 📚 Reading for quality, not for quantity
Naval doesn’t read books to completion, he doesn’t use this as a measure of value.
Your brain has finite information and finite space. There is a lot of nonsense in books out there
“I don’t read anymore to complete books, I read to satisfy my genuine intellectual curiosity”
He will flip through books, reading for understanding and ideas. When he finds something he will research it and reflect on it. He has 50-70 books open at any given point. “I no longer track books read, or even care about books read. It’s about understanding concepts”
2. 🧐 Pursuing your genuine intellectual curiosity
All humans are broad. When you combine your interests, you can make links between interests and you become more unique in your intellectual endeavors
“Specialisation is for insects, you should not focus your life down on one thing. You have one life, just do everything you want to do.”
It’s painful to start over, to climb back down the mountain, to find another path to the next peak. Elon was called an idiot to start something new that he was not qualified for. You have to be willing to be a fool, to have a beginner’s mind, and start over.
The most exciting thing is to get better at something new. To learn.
3. 😊 Happiness can be learned
“If you are so smart, how come you aren’t happy? How come you haven’t figured that out?”
“Desire is a contract that you make, to be unhappy, until you get what you want".” Pick your one overwhelming desire. Focus down on that, and let all of the others go. They just take up brain space and contribute to unhappiness.
If you want to have an effective and strong mind, you need it to be clear and calm. Warren Buffet plays bridge all day, he doesn’t constantly load up his brain with information and get worked up over every little thing.
In this age, there is infinite leverage (because of social media, code, and employees). We can influence thousands or millions of people through our decisions. Because of that, the impacts of good decision-making are much higher than they used to be.
A happy, calm, and peaceful person will make better decisions and have better outcomes.
The right way to work is like a lion, not like cows. We are meant to hunt. As a modern intellectual athlete, you want to function like an athlete. Train hard, sprint, rest, reassess. Output is not linear. Cranking every day with the same intensity is what machines do. Give your mind time to rest.
Naval also talks about meditiation and its role in this context
4. 🔮 The future of work - the information age will reverse the industrial age
Just listen from 23:59 (I can’t summarise this any better)
🙇♂️Some other things I got value from/consumed this week:
Seeing the launch of Sora (The pace that AI tech is improving is cracked)
Using no-code tools to build an app.
Learning about this style of work (an implementation of what Naval talks about)
Using this Pomorodoro Timer when I work (I find it works well as a widget on my laptop desktop)
Listening to rain and piano when I work
Thanks again for reading as always!
Catchya next week xx
Laine